Internal combustion engines for automobiles and trucks have replaceable oil filters comprising a metal casing enclosing filter material. Periodically the oil filters are exchanged for new oil filters. The used oil filters are disposed of in land fills and incinerators. The oil filters when removed from the internal combustion engines retain a quantity of oil. This oil is disposed of along with the filters. In land fill disposal of oil filters the oil can contaminate the soil and ground water.
An oil can crusher which flatten oil cans and discharge the flattened oil cans into a barrel is disclosed by J. C. Jennings in U.S. Pat. No. 2,737,995. This crusher uses an air cylinder to move a piston toward a fixed wall to crush an oil can. The crushed oil can along with any oil therein is deposited in an oil drum. S. E. Keagel in U.S. Pat. No. 3,517,607 discloses an automatic article crusher for breaking a bottle or can with a hydraulic cylinder operable to move a platen to crush the article. A spool control valve controls the flow of hydraulic fluid to the cylinder. The control valve is equiped with a hydraulic fluid pressure responsive release valve that automatically returns the control valve to its initial position after a predetermined hydraulic fluid pressure is reached. The entire crushing apparatus is located within a housing which precludes access to the crushing apparatus. This article crushing apparatus is not suitable for crushing oil filters and does not have any provision to collect oil from the oil filters.